BPL list: Those left out can file appeal
Chandigarh, December 13
Haryana financial commi- ssioner and principal secretary, rural development
dept, Urvashi Gulati today appealed to those who have a grievance against the draft lists of below poverty line families to avail themselves of the opportunity of the two-stage appeals so as to get their grievances redressed.

Villagers at the mini-secretariat in Jagadhri to lodge their protest against alleged discrepancies in the BPL list on Thursday.
— A Tribune photograph

Rahul Mahajan’s wife files for divorce
Gurgaon, December 13
The wife of Rahul Mahajan, son of the late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, filed a divorce petition in a local court here today.
Shweta Mahajan filed the divorce case in the court of District and Sessions Judge Ramendra Jain.Shweta Mahajan on the way to the court for filing divorce papers in Gurgaon on Thursday.
— A Tribune photograph

It’s all for 100 sq yd plots
Chandigarh, December 13
A 100 sq yard plot is at the heart of all the fuss being created in the name of the BPL list. The desire to own that 100 sq yard plot, promised to the landless Dalits and those covered under the BPL at a rally in Jharli in October this year, has opened a Pandora’s box for the state government with all political parties jumping on to the protest bandwagon to score their point in the eyes of the public (read voters).

Shooting on School Campus
Our son is innocent: Parents
Family of the other accused still at large
Gurgaon, December 13
Parents of one of the teenagers, accused in the shocking school shooting case, today claimed that their son was innocent and they were not aware of him being involved in any quarrel with the victim.

People-friendly admn set-up is panel’s aim
Chandigarh, December 13
It is a metamorphosis of sorts but it’s a task well laid out and adequately defined. The mission is to conceive a sensitive, people-friendly administrative set-up with corruption at its lowest ebb if not eradicated.

Child sex ratio has improved: Minister
Chandigarh, December 13
The state health department has registered a marked improvement in the child sex ratio between the age of 0 to six years as according to the civil registration system, it has increased from 819 females per 1,000 males as per the 2001 census to 862 females per 1,000 males in July 2007.

Dera Chief’s Trial
Lawyers write to CJI
Sirsa, December 13
As many as 35 advocates of the District Bar Association yesterday sent a letter to the Chief Justice of India, the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the Chief Minister stating that there were reports that the cases against the dera chief were likely to be transferred from the CBI special court in Ambala to Sirsa, a move, they said, could come in the way of a fair trial.

Euro school to hold counselling sessions
Gurgaon, December 13
To stress out students from the fear of death, counselling sessions have been arranged in Euro International School, where recently two boys shot their classmate on the school campus.

Train rams into tractor, driver unhurt
Jhajjar, December 13
A tractor driver had a miraculous escape when a speeding train rammed into his tractor at a railway crossing near Barahi village of the district today.

Panchayat poll: Liquor banned
Chandigarh, December 13
The Haryana excise and taxation department has issued closure orders of liquor shops and banned selling or serving of liquor in hotels, restaurants, clubs and other establishments from December 15 to December 17 in the Sambhalkha gram panchayat area in Ladwa block of Kurukshetra district and the adjoining areas.

Three held for murder
Bhiwani, December 13
The police yesterday held three persons for killing a man and injuring another.

Woman found murdered
Hisar, December 13
A young woman was found murdered in the old Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) office in the Urban Estate II area here today.

35-yr-old man murdered
Sirsa, December 13
A 35-year-old man was brutally murdered by some unidentified assailants near railway quarters late night here. The man whose identity was yet to be ascertained had severe wounds on the body, which was believed to be caused by some sharp-edged weapon, said the police.

Chandigarh, December 13
Haryana financial commissioner and principal secretary, rural development department, Urvashi Gulati today appealed to those who have a grievance against the draft lists of below poverty line (BPL) families to avail themselves of the opportunity of the two-stage appeals so as to get their grievances redressed.

She said any person having a grievance against the non-inclusion of his name or inclusion of ineligible persons in the BPL lists had the right to file an appeal before the subdivisional magistrate or tehsildar within 30 days from the date of approval of the draft BPL lists by the gram sabha concerned.

She said these appeals would be disposed of by the subdivisional magistrate or tehsildar concerned within 10 days. If someone was still aggrieved with the decision of the first appeal, a second appeal could also be filed before the deputy commissioner concerned within 30 days of the decision of the first appeal.

After the completion of the two-stage appeals, the final BPL lists would be prepared. She said as per guidelines issued by the union ministry of rural development, a survey of all rural households was conducted in Haryana this year to prepare a draft list of BPL families, which was now being placed before the gram sabhas for “inviting claims from eligible families and objections from ineligible families”.

She said the survey had been conducted by the Haryana Ex-Services League.

Villagers hold protests

KAITHAL: Residents of Lander
Keema, Titram and Kakheri villages in the district have expressed resentment over the alleged omission of names of a large number of deserving families from the BPL lists.

The residents, including women, of Lander Keema held a demonstration at the mini-secretariat here on Wednesday. Later, the villagers met deputy commissioner S.K.Goyal and urged him to order a fresh survey to include the names of those left out.

Expressing resentment over the omission of names of a large number of beneficiaries from the BPL lists, residents of Kakehri village in Ghula subdivision and Titram village also held a demonstration on Wednesday.

SIRSA: Residents of over a dozen villages, including Dadu, Rangri and
Kalanawali, on Thursday staged a dharna in front of the deputy commissioner’s office and also submitted a memorandum alleging that their names were excluded from the BPL list despite the fact that they were eligible.

YAMUNANAGAR: A large number of people on Thursday reached the mini-secretariat here to protest against the non-inclusion of their names in the BPL list. Similar protests were held in a large number of villages in the district.

Chaos prevailed at the government primary school in Tejali village after the names in the BPL list was read out.
Pholwati, Rak Kumar, Shyam Lal, Krisha Sharma, Usha Rani and a large number of other residents of the village complained that they had no source of income and yet their names were missing from the BPL list.

They complained that the names of a village panch, who had retired from a government job, and a bank employee were in the list.

Gurgaon, December 13
The wife of Rahul Mahajan, son of the late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, filed a divorce petition in a local court here today.

Shweta Mahajan filed the divorce case in the court of District and Sessions Judge Ramendra Jain. She filed for divorce on grounds of incompatibility and mutual consent of both parties.

The lawyer of Shweta, Harish Malhotra, said the next hearing in the case had been fixed for January 24 next.

Her mother and a few lawyers accompanied Shweta. Both Rahul and Shweta, who got married in August 2006, had been consistently denying reports of a rift in their marriage.

There were also reports that Shweta had been physical and verbally tortured by her husband.

Rahul and Shweta had completed their flying course together abroad and the two families apparently have known each other since a long time.

Their marriage was solemnised on August 29 last year in the presence of the BJP’s top brass at a time when Rahul was in the midst of a legal battle over his alleged drug abuse. The ceremony took place three months after Pramod was shot dead in Mumbai.

“It’s a matter of mutual consent and private matter. I don’t want to talk on it any more and what I have said is said and speculation is not part of it and my vocabulary,” Rahul told reporters when asked for his comment. He did not elaborate. Shweta maintained silence over the issue. “Please, it is very personal and leave it at that. I do not want to speak on the matter at all,” said Shweta, a former pilot with a private airline.

Chandigarh, December 13
A 100 sq yard plot is at the heart of all the fuss being created in the name of the BPL list. The desire to own that 100 sq yard plot, promised to the landless Dalits and those covered under the BPL at a rally in Jharli in October this year, has opened a Pandora’s box for the state government with all political parties jumping on to the protest bandwagon to score their point in the eyes of the public (read voters).

At this point, when the still-to-be-finalised new list has raised the hackles of those being “deprived” of the benefits under the BPL scheme, the opinion of the panchayat and development department matters little. Officials of the department have been crying themselves hoarse about the “fairness” of the survey carried out by the ex-servicemen league to identify “the poorest of the poor”.

Political parties are not convinced and the public is not interested. All that matters is that names of families availing themselves of BPL concessions have been struck off, fairly or unfairly, while those of “new, undeserving people” have made it to the list readied after a survey.

And, nobody is taking it lying down. While the political parties are demanding fresh surveys and scraping of this list besides threatening protests, the public, too, is in no mood to relent with lists being hotly debated at the gram sabhas being specially organised for the purpose.

In view of the protests, president of the Haryana Congress Phool Chand Maulana has already sought a re-look into the lists drafted by the department in a letter to the government.

A leader of the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL), Kuldeep Bishnoi, has already made his intentions clear to support the cause of the public by holding demonstrations across the state. “We will begin with our first demonstration at Rohtak on December 17. One such sit-in protest will be organised at a district headquarters every day barring the weekends. Each district will lodge its protest on the BPL list,” he stated.

The vice-president of the Bharatiya Janta Party, Gian Chand Gupta, today demanded a “fresh, transparent survey” conducted in the presence of public representatives. “We are flooded with complaints about the gross injustice being meted out to deserving families by striking off their names. While identifying an individual for BPL benefits, the surveyors should not only consider the individual’s income but that of his family also to avoid discrepancies,” he held.

He further demanded that to bring about greater transparency, “accountability” for wrong inclusion of names should be fixed without which the deserving were bound to be left out.

The president of the state unit of the Indian National Lok Dal, Ashok Arora, said the government’s survey was completely “misleading”. “They can’t give so many plots which is why they are cutting down the number of BPL families. Our party workers will hold protests and submit memorandums to the authorities till the problem is solved. The issue will also be taken up at our political affairs committee meeting in Delhi shortly,” Arora added.

Shooting on School Campus

Our son is innocent: Parents
Family of the other accused still at large

Gurgaon, December 13
Parents of one of the teenagers, accused in the shocking school shooting case, today claimed that their son was innocent and they were not aware of him being involved in any quarrel with the victim.

Surfacing before the media for the first time after their son, along with his classmate, allegedly killed a co-student, the parents said they had no enmity with anyone and had never met the victim or the other accused or their families.

The parents of the other accused are still absconding. A case has been registered against Azad Yadav, the absconding father whose gun was used in the murder, under the Arms Act for alleged negligence.

“Our child is innocent. We do not have a revolver or any other firearm. I am a responsible person,” said the father of the teenager who allegedly shot class VIII student Abhishek Tyagi of Euro International School here. Another student had allegedly fired four shots at the victim.

He said his son was an “obedient” boy, who was interested in sports and games.

“We are sad about the boy who was killed...I was shocked when I heard about the incident. I do not believe that my son did it,” he told NDTV.

He claimed that he was at his farm in Rajasthan at the time of the shooting and denied reports that he was a property dealer.

“They might have fought. But we never had any information about it. The school authorities never informed us about anything,” he claimed.

The teenager’s mother claimed that he was being framed and that the family came to know about the incident only from the school bus driver.

Meanwhile, the grandfather of the victim threatened that they “will not let the accused’s families live in peace if we don’t get justice”.

“Money is involved in this matter. We have lost our only son,” he told CNN-IBN.

Abhishek’s another relative alleged that the two teenagers were used as “pawns” to kill him.

“We have lost our son. All we want from the government now is justice,” he said.
— PTI

Chandigarh, December 13
It is a metamorphosis of sorts but it’s a task well laid out and adequately defined. The mission is to conceive a sensitive, people-friendly administrative set-up with corruption at its lowest ebb if not eradicated. It is also to build an environment where the system, and not the person running it, is of the utmost significance.

For this, the ball got rolling today with Palwal MLA Karan Singh Dalal chairing the first meeting of the four-member State Administrative Reforms Commission at Haryana Niwas.

As if to convey that the commission meant business, the members have “issued summons” to the Food and Supplies Department for a “hearing” tomorrow. “Since this department deals with rations and BPL families, we decided to begin with it and go on to other departments associated with public dealing. Our foremost job is to understand the working, go on to the difficulties of the public and the officers and, finally, make our recommendations for a better interface between the two,” he said.

Speaking to TNS, he said that each member was particularly concerned about the tendency of the system to be a puppet in the hands of those who wielded power. “We want the system to function independently and not be a prisoner in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats”. They should merely be catalysts of change.

With two former chief secretaries, M.C. Gupta and Prem Prashant, and educationist D.R. Chaudhary nominated as members, the panel would make its recommendations within the two-year term prescribed for it. “We will invite suggestions from the public to make the system more responsive to their needs and grievances. We will also visit offices where public dealing is the maximum, study the problems and work upon them. We will also study such systems in places within and outside India and may even submit an interim report to the government,” he said.

“Education and health are two priority areas without which no state can make any headway. We are committed to making these departments more effective in terms of public dealing and strongly advocate the adoption of e-governance,” Dalal averred.

Amending rules that had come down the decades as a legacy of the British would also be taken up by the commission. “We have these old rules by virtue of which doctors do not perform postmortems after the sun goes down. If heart and brain operations can be done, why harass people by delaying the exercise for a day.”

Chandigarh, December 13
The state health department has registered a marked improvement in the child sex ratio between the age of 0 to six years as according to the civil registration system, it has increased from 819 females per 1,000 males as per the 2001 census to 862 females per 1,000 males in July 2007.

Stating this today, health minister Kartar Devi said it was in 2005 that the health department started monitoring the statistics at the time of birth.

For that year, the child sex ratio at the time of birth had shown slight improvement as it increased to 823 per 1,000 males.

In December 2006, the sex ratio between the age of 0 to six years had further increased to 857 females per 1,000 males.

She said the government had taken a number of steps to effectively check this marked difference in the sex ratio and curb female foeticide.

She said 950 ultrasound clinics or genetic clinics and 66 genetic counselling centres had so far been registered under the PNDT Act in the state. Also, 46 ultrasound machines had been registered in the government sector.

She said the district authorities had seized and sealed 100 ultrasound machines for being unregistered or for violations of various provisions of the PNDT Act.

The registration of 165 ultrasound centres had either been suspended or cancelled.

She said 36 cases had so far been filed in various courts against the violators of the PNDT Act while two doctors of Palwal and Rohtak had been convicted for committing offences punishable under the PNDT Act.

The minister said a multi-member state appropriate authority has been constituted under the chairmanship of the director-general health services, Haryana.

Sirsa, December 13
As many as 35 advocates of the District Bar Association yesterday sent a letter to the Chief Justice of India, the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the Chief Minister stating that there were reports that the cases against the dera chief were likely to be transferred from the CBI special court in Ambala to Sirsa, a move, they said, could come in the way of a fair trial.

They said the dera chief wanted the constitution of a special court in Sirsa for the purpose. They said since the dera chief was based in Sirsa, the cases against him could not be transferred there. They feared that with a show of strength of his followers, the dera chief could influence the trial.

They said Sirsa-based journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati, who was shot dead allegedly by dera men, was a member of their Bar and his family wanted a fair trail in the case.

The advocates alleged that the dera chief, despite being an accused, had been given VVIP treatment by the state government.

Gurgaon, December 13
To stress out students from the fear of death, counselling sessions have been arranged in Euro International School, where recently two boys shot their classmate on the school campus.

School chairman Satya Vir Yadav said the school would reopen tomorrow and a condolence meeting would be held for Abhishek.

Yadav said as there was stress and fear among students and teachers of the school after the tragic incident, counselling sessions had been arranged for the next few days in the school to divert the minds of the students. He said the counselling sessions would be held in groups of 20 to 25 students.

He said even the teachers of the school would be part of the counselling sessions as they were also going through the same stress and shock.

He said the police had been requested to provide security on the school campus during this period to avoid any untoward incident.

Yadav said legal opinion would be sought for taking action against two students who were involved in the shooting incident.

Meanwhile, the family members of Abhishek met Gurgaon police commissioner Mahinder Lal and sought action against the school authorities and the father of the accused.

They also demanded that the arms licence of Azad Yadav should be cancelled.

Jhajjar, December 13
A tractor driver had a miraculous escape when a speeding train rammed into his tractor at a railway crossing near Barahi village of the district today.

The accident occurred as the railway gatekeeper, who mans gate no C 26, did not lower the bars. According to information, gatekeeper Chhazu Ram raised the bars after a local train, 2DJ, to Delhi passed the track.

Meanwhile, Gorakhdham Express, which was coming from Delhi to Rohtak, hit the tractor, which was crossing the tracks.

On spotting the train, driver Phool Kanwar tried to drove back his vehicle but failed. He jumped from the tractor but the vehicle got trapped in front of the train.

Another maxi cab carrying schoolchildren managed to escape the collusion by a fraction. Station superintendent R.P. Meena said the higher authorities were inquiring into the incident.

While the gatekeeper maintained that he was not informed about the arrival of the train from Bahadurgarh railway station, officials at the station stated that they had given the message to the gatekeeper.

Chandigarh, December 13
The Haryana excise and taxation department has issued closure orders of liquor shops and banned selling or serving of liquor in hotels, restaurants, clubs and other establishments from December 15 to December 17 in the Sambhalkha gram panchayat area in Ladwa block of Kurukshetra district and the adjoining areas in view of the byelections of panches and sarpanches and members of panchayat samities and zila parishads and the elections of panches and sarpanches scheduled to be held in these areas on December 16.

Stating this here today, commissioner, excise and taxation, Arun Kumar said selling or serving liquor on these days would not be permitted in pursuance of the provisions of rule 37(10) of Haryana Liquor Licence Rules, 1970.

All liquor shops, hotels, restaurants, clubs and other establishments selling or serving liquor would remain closed in the election areas till the counting was completed and results declared, he added.

Bhiwani, December 13
The police yesterday held three persons for killing a man and injuring another.

SP Sanjay Kumar said Yadvender, who was sitting with his friend, Pawan, at a tent house, was shot dead by three armed men on November 30. Yadvender had died on the spot while Pawan sustained bullet injuries. The police had registered a case and handed it over to CIA first inspector Ram Avtar.

During investigations, Sachin of Laxmi Nagar told the police that Harjeet of Laxmi Nagar and Surender and Daya Chand of DC Colony were involved in the murder.

The police on a tip off held the trio from Rohini area of New Delhi on December 11.

During interrogation, Daya Chand said he had shot at Navin Kumar of Ajitpur in 2000 following a clash. The court had sentenced him to five years of imprisonment.

He further said he had also hit Dharmbir of Ajitpur with an axe after pouring red chillies in his eyes when the latter clashed with his father. He shot dead Yadvender following an enmity.

Hisar, December 13
A young woman was found murdered in the old Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) office in the Urban Estate II area here today.

She has been identified as Meena (23). She had been allowed to live in the abandoned office along with her brother Rajesh after the death of their mother Santosh who worked as a sewadar in the HUDA office.

Since the brother and sister had not received their dead mother’s dues from HUDA, they were allowed to live in the abandoned office building for the time being.

Rajesh noticed the murder when he came home in the afternoon for lunch. He found the door broken open and Meena lying inside in a pool of blood.

Sirsa, December 13
A 35-year-old man was brutally murdered by some unidentified assailants near railway quarters late night here. The man whose identity was yet to be ascertained had severe wounds on the body, which was believed to be caused by some sharp-edged weapon, said the police.